Animorphs: The Terrorist
by aizxana
Summary: Terrorists are threating to blow up a government building, a building riddled with Controllers. Should the Fugitives and the Animorphs allow the bomb to go off, a major blow to the Yeerks, or stop it, saving hundreds of lives and the state's morale?
1. Chapter 1: Kickboxing

**Animorphs: The Terrorist**

_This story is set a week or so after The Epidemic. For a fuller background of Sam and the other new characters, you might want to read The Fugitives series. _

_Disclaimer: all characters belong to me, apart from Sam, Philip, Ferdie and Maggie, plus any others you don't recognise._

**Chapter One**

"Go for it Sam!"

I tensed my muscles in response to Rachel's cry, wiping the hair out of my eyes, ready to face what was coming to me. A tall, muscular girl, with dark hair and even darker eyes, was glaring at me. I put my hands up to guard, never breaking eye contact with her. She jabbed with her fist, but I managed to block her movements. I stepped to the side, dodging another throw, ready to perform a counter attack. I placed my weight ion my back foot, ready to kick. Suddenly, she stepped forward, performing a graceful but powerful speedy roundhouse kick. Right into my ribs.

"Ah!" I gasped, doubling over in pain and collapsing to the floor. The girl laughed and walked over to me.

"Y'aright gal?" she smiled, pulling me to my feet. "Guess that last kick was kinda hard."

I stood up straight, still winded but trying to grin back. Barely ten seconds in and I'd already lost the round. My kickboxing partner was far more experienced than I was, but she was a good sport. She'd knew when to stop - unlike most of my enemies.

"Yeah, not bad, thanks," I said, wiping the sweat out of my eyes and trying to get my breath back. "I really thought I had you there, Charlene. I suppose that teaches me for getting all cocky."

"Hey, no worries!" Charlene said, taking a swig of water from her bottle before passing it to me. "You did great. Really. You've done this before, right?"

"Did it a bit at school," I replied. "I'm a bit rusty, though."

From the outside of the ring, Rachel snorted with laughter. Ok, so 'a bit rusty' was probably slightly inaccurate. I'd had plenty of practise fighting over the last few weeks. Just none as a human.

"Well, I'm sure you'll get back into it," Charlene said. She glanced at the clock, distracted. "I gotta be off in a minute. You coming next week?"

"Um, should be," I said vaguely, knowing these opportunities for sport were few and far between. "If nothing comes up."

"Sure," she nodded, like she cared. "Well, see ya later!" She grabbed her sweat towel and sashayed towards the changing rooms, followed by a group of girls.

I stepped out of the ring and walked towards Rachel. "Don't. Say. Anything." I told her, refusing to catch her eye.

Rachel put on hand on her delicate hip and smirked at me. "Sam," she said solemnly, her voice low. "All I want to know is, how can a girl who's second-in-command of an army against a load of mind controlling aliens, who's been in more battles than your average New York street punk, not take down Charlene Spearson?"

I grabbed my bag and headed towards the changing rooms. "I try not to get into fights unless I can help it," I muttered. "And when I do, they've generally been when I was in the body of a leopard. So I haven't had much experience fighting in my human body. Besides, Philip is usually the one who was responsible for the battle tactics. I tend to just roar and swipe."

Rachel cocked her head at looked at me. "Well, remind me not to call on you to save my butt unless you happen to be a leopard." A bunch of girls, in full earshot of our conversation walked by, but the way she phased the sentence wouldn't have aroused any suspicion from even the most keen-eared of Controllers. She paused when she saw my face. "Hey, I'm just kidding, Sam! At least you had the nerve to fight her. I didn't go within ten feet of the girl." She pulled her jeans out of her bag and began to get changed.

"Oh, so you weren't just dying to spar with her?" I retorted. "I saw your face, Rachel, continuously watching the clock, hoping there'd be time for you to go up there and show her what Xena is made of!"

"Don't call me that!" she laughed. "Only Marco calls me that, and I'm tempted to rip his head off every time he does."

"But you would have fought her if you'd had time?"

She gave me a quick shrug of her mouth. "Maybe."

Which of course, translated roughly to "Visser Three couldn't hold me back."

We left the gym, stinking of a hundred different brands of girls' deodorants, and headed across the road towards the shopping centre. It was a bright, sunny, Saturday in September, and I was glad to get out of the country and into the city for a while. Spending days down in a make-shift wooden hut in a valley, with the company of a load of giant lizards does begin to wear you down after a while. Jake and I had decided that since there were no missions or anything planned, we should take the weekend off. Relax and forget about fighting the Yeerks. So Rachel and I had attended a kickboxing lesson at her local gym. Cassie and Jake were spending some quality time together. Ferdie and the other original Animorphs were at the cinema watching some new film which had yet to be released in Britain. Philip would probably be planning lessons for the four of us in battle tactics or living in the wilderness. He's like that.

I took another swig of my water and crossed the road without looking. Whilst I was still red-faced and sweating from the exercise, Rachel was gliding gracefully along like she'd just come out of having a massage. Her pink sports bag was thrown casually over her shoulder, bouncing in time to her step, as her high heels clicked on the pavement. Her long, blonde hair fell into perfect place, compared to the messy frizz that was my own. How that girl managed to stay looking so perfect, even after an hours kickboxing, I have no idea.

"Want to pop into Express for a bit, before we meet the others?" she asked, her eyes caught by the attention of a large, red sale sign in the clothes shop window. I rolled my eyes. We'd been in the mall for less than three seconds.

"Yeah, sure," I replied, looking at my watch. "But we've only got ten minutes before we're supposed to meet the others. And knowing you, you'll see one thing you want and insist on finding a whole new outfit to go with it."

"Geez, you sound just like Cassie," Rachel laughed, entering the shop and immediately striding towards the sale section. "I'm just browsing, that's all. I probably won't even buy any-" she paused, pulling out a silky, dark blue halter neck. "Oh, I have _got _to get this!" she cried. I rolled my eyes. It's not that I don't like shopping - I used to enjoy it most of the time, but this girl put a whole new meaning on the word. She saw it as some kind of mission.

"And therefore a pair of jeans, some new shoes and a jacket too, I guess?"

Rachel ignored me and hurried towards the changing rooms. "Be back in a second!" she called.

"Hang on, I'll join you," I said, grabbing a handful of random tee-shirts from the rack. "Give you a second opinion." I took a ticket from the attendant and followed Rachel into the changing rooms. I had no intention of trying on the clothes of course, and Rachel knew that.

"Why did didn't you do it back at the gym?" she asked, as we took adjacent stalls.

"Too many people around," I replied. "Besides, I thought I had more time than I really did."

"Whatever," she replied absently, obviously immersed in her shopping now. I shut and locked the door, dumped the tee-shirts on the chair, and stood facing the mirror. See, I can't just go out and show my face in public. Far too dangerous. It would get me killed - or worse, infested. An army of alien Yeerks are on the look-out for me and my friends, and unfortunately for us, they know everything there is to know about me. And Philip. And Ferdie and Maggie. Including what we look like. We're fugitives, and, unlike Rachel and the other Animorphs who have yet to be recognised as humans, we have to be careful not to let any Controllers ever see us. Fortunately, we have a rather nifty ability which allows for quick and easy disguise. We can morph. I stared the unfamiliar face in my reflection; a mixture of heavily slanted, amber eyes, light brown hair, and olive skin, and forced my mind to focus on my original self. Immediately, the changes began to appear. My slanted cat-like eyes became more human and brown in colour. My olive skin became pale and pink, but still heavily flushed from the work out. My hair grew to shoulder length, turning dark brown, almost black in colour. I was Samantha Goddard again.

"You done in there?" Rachel called from the next-door stall.

"Hang on," I called back, my voice a little higher now that I had demorphed. "Just need to change back." I focused back on the leopard DNA inside of me, watching as my features shifted in accordance to the new information. I stopped the morph before my face looked too cat-like, and regarded my new form in the mirror. Partial morphs were a little tactic which Philip, Ferdie, Maggie and I would employ whenever we were in public. We were reluctant to acquire and morph another human, so had instead become adept in part-way morphing. Just enough to become unrecognisable as ourselves, but not so far as to look like half-human freaks.

"Ready," I said, stepping out of the stall. Rachel was already waiting for me.

"Your hair looks different to last time," she commented. "It looks darker. And your eyes are more green this time than gold."

"It seems to be different every time," I said. "I still haven't learnt to control it as well as Cassie or Maggie." I glanced at my watch, noting the time. I would have to de- and remorph again in two hours.

"I can't even do a partial one," said Rachel, handing the halter neck to the attendant, "let alone control it."

"Yeah, well, if you were in our position, you'd want to learn how to do it as well as you can," I said. "Are you not getting that top?"

"Too small," she replied, glancing at a pair of zebra-print jeans. I quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her away, leading her out of the shop.

"No more time for that now," I said. "Come on, we'd better find the others."

"You just want to go see Ferdie again," Rachel giggled. "Three hours apart and it's already killing you!"


	2. Chapter 2: The Team

**Chapter Two**

"Wonder Woman! You're looking oh-so-fine! Good workout?"

Ferdie's voice rang in my ears long before we actually spotted him though the masses of people crowding the shopping centre.

"At least you're not the only one who gets called stupid nicknames," I said to Rachel as we pushed our way through the swarms of people. Rachel had this strange ability to make her way through crowds without ever coming into contact with a single other person. I, however, was constantly barging into other people, muttering 'scuse me, sorry,' over and over again.

"Hey guys," said Jake, once we'd eventually located them. Five guys and one girl sat relaxing round a table, drinking Cokes and snacking on burgers and chips. Rachel took a seat beside Cassie, and attempted to make her understand the techniques of a successful bargain hunt. Cassie attempted to turn the conversation towards animals.

"Hiya," I said, grabbing a spare chair and sitting down next to Ferdie.

"It was a great workout," said Rachel, replying to Ferdie's earlier question. "Good to get some exercise. But Sam here got totally thrashed!"

Philip, who was eating a salad, raised his eyebrows briefly but said nothing.

"I did not get thrashed!" I retorted. "I merely let my guard drop for a second, and consequently was…" I trailed off, watching Rachel's triumphant face. "Hey, you haven't fought her yet, so how can you mock me?"

"I'd love to see Xena and Wonder Woman in a fight together," said Marco from across the table. "Let me know if you ever decide, and I'll get some popcorn ready. And maybe a video camera."

Rachel delicately picked a wad of chewed gum from an ashtray, and flicked it at Marco. It hit his face, and bounced onto the floor. Cassie rolled her eyes and smiled at Jake, who laughed at his best friend.

"Hey, that was uncalled for!" Marco retorted.

I caught Ferdie's eye and grinned, grabbing a chip from the little polystyrene box. I relaxed and surveyed our little group. Philip, having partially morphed a musk ox, looked hilarious, his sensible-looking, aristocratic features framed by a mass of long, black, tangled ox hair. His face still retained its permanently distracted expression, however. He had also attempted to swap his normal tweeds for a black leather biker jacket, but as his multi-coloured morphing outfit poked out from underneath, he had yet to pull the look off. I could see Rachel staring at him, and I could tell she was debating with herself whether or not this called for another shopping trip for the four of us.

"Want some lemonade?" asked Ferdie, handing me a bottle. He had done a partial morph of a lynx, and his shaggy strawberry mane had been replaced by short, sandy coloured hair. His glittery-green eyes looked even more mischievous than they usually did, due to the presence of cat DNA. He had replaced his smart-causal polo shirt and beige corduroys for a pair of slack jeans and a long sleeved tee shirt. He still retained his classic Shakespearian looks though, and, along with that unmistakable upper-class self confidence, reminded me of Prince Harry trying to fit in at a Kaiser Chiefs gig.

Opposite Ferdie sat Maggie, looking slightly out of place among the sprawls of urban society. Maggie had been bought up in a variety of remote African villages, and was still rather apprehensive when it came to western civilisation. She had partially morphed a wolf, with striking blue-black hair replacing her normally red and bushy human hair. Her pink, sun-reddened skin looked dark and a little too grey to be natural. Her huge brown eyes had become smaller, beadier, and darker.

"Suits you," I said to Maggie, nodding at her hair. "Not sure about the eyes, but the hair is cool."

"Thanks," she replied, completely failing to hide her a thick Scottish accent. "I normally do a rat, but I thought I'd try something else today."

Suddenly, Marco stood up. "Uh oh, guys, here comes Ax with the Cinnabons. Better get the straitjacket ready.

A moment later, we were joined by the last two members of our team, Tobias and Ax, both original Animorphs. And, without meaning to be rude, a truly peculiar pair. Tobias, having become stuck in the form of a red-tailed hawk, was looking particularly out of place among us humans. Although he'd regained the power to morph long before the four of us had arrived on the scene, it was obviously that he still felt unease in human environments such as these. He placed a tray of doughnuts and bottles of juice down in front of us, his face perfectly expressionless, his eyes darting about the place like a sparrow. Ax, being an alien, was even worse. He had morphed his human form, a strange combination of Jake, Rachel, Marco and Cassie, the result of which was a disturbing good-looking male which was now gazing in blue-eyed wonder at the sweet smelling confectionary which lay before him.

"Bun-zuh…" he muttered quietly, his face leaning slowly towards the tray. "Sweet tasting, beautiful bun-zuh!"

Ax is as Andalite, and Andalite do not have mouths. Or, indeed, taste buds. Therefore, when Ax morphs a human, he becomes somewhat overwhelmed at the sense of taste. That, and his tendency to repeat words, or 'mouth sounds', as he likes to call them, makes for an inevitable afternoon of bizarre behaviour.

"Someone want to stop him from eating the plate too, this time?" asked Philip, making no attempt whatsoever to disguise his distinctive clipped accent.

"Yeah right," said Marco. "You want to get between that guy and a Cinnabon, that's your funeral. Me? I'm staying well back."

I heard a snort beside me, and turned to see Ferdie watching with interest as Ax proceeded to stuff the entire tray of buns into his mouth at once. He breathed deeply, eyes rolling with ecstasy, warm icing dripping down his chin.

"Buns!" he gasped, barely intelligible. "Oh, buns, bun-zuh! Such pleasure! Such sweetness, how I have never tasted anything so fine!"

"Prefer that to yesterday's motor oil, Ax?" asked Marco wryly.

Ax took no notice, instead grabbing a bottle of orange juice and pouring the contents into his already overstuffed mouth.

"Juice!" he cried, orange liquid splattering from his mouth. "Bun-zuh! And joos-suh! Where can I find more of this wonderful joos-suh?"

Ferdie ducked the flying crumbs which had once been contents of Ax's mouth. "Remind me never to take you to dinner at the Ivy," he said conversationally.

"Ok, Ax, I think you've had quite enough for one day," said Jake patiently, as if he was a psychiatric doctor speaking to a rather unpredictable patient. "Let's just leave the buns alone now, shall we?"

Ax's eyes widened in horror as a small piece of bun was removed from his sight and thrown into the bin.

"Bun-zuh!" he cried, staring at Jake like a beaten dog begging for forgiveness from it's master.

"Jeez, I think we've established that they're buns alright," said Marco. "Now, if you'd like to attempt to string more than two comprehensible words together?"

Ax finished chewing the last of this mouthful, his face red, his shoulders heaving, his tongue licking his lips in a final attempt to savour as much of the flavour as possible. Eventually, he calmed down, and took a sip of water, attempting to regain his composure.

"I apologise, Prince Jake" he said soberly. "That behaviour was inappropriate."

Jake rolls his eyes in exasperation. "That's ok, Ax," he said, sitting back in his chair. "Just don't call me Prince anymore, and we'll forget all about it."

"Of course, Prince Jake. Ake. Prins-suh Jake," he added for good measure.

Just then, Jake's mobile began to bleep. He took it out of his pocket, flipped it open and stared stonily at it for a second before sighing and replacing it in his pocket.

"Alright, that's enough, Ax," he continued. "Just shut up for a second." He lowered his voice and glanced around at the nine of us. "Um, look, I know I said that we were going to try and have a nice Yeerk free day, but I've just had a message from Erek."

"Aww, man, so much for a relaxing weekend!" groaned Marco, running a hand through his thick black hair. "I even managed to get my history paper done early, just so that I'd have nothing to worry about today!"

"Who's Erek?" I asked, looking confused at Jake. I could feel Philip, Ferdie and Maggie wanting to ask the same thing.

"Erek's one of us," Jake said. "He's the one who-"

Maggie cut him off. "There are more of you? More morphers, you mean?"

"Yes, just shout it out, for all to hear," muttered Ferdie.

Jake took over again. "He's not exactly one of us in the sense that he's an Animorph."

Marco scoffed at this.

"Ok," said Jake, "he not exactly one of us, in the sense that's he's not human."

"What, he's a…" asked Maggie, mentioning to Ax.

Jake let a nervous smile spread over his face. "Uh uh. He's not an Andalite. I guess you could call him an alien, but with a big difference. The dude isn't even alive."

"He's dead?" said Ferdie.

"What? No!" said Jake, looking surprised. "Look, Erek's an android. You know, like a robot. Created by a long-extinct race known as the Pemalites."

"Pema-what?" Philip asked. "You've lost me."

"Erek's race, the Chee, are androids, created by a species called the Pemalites," Jake repeated. His voice was low, and I had to struggle to hear. "They have been living on earth for thousands of years. They have the ability to create advanced and highly realistic holograms, as well as a variety of other advanced technologies. In their normal form, they look like dogs or wolves walking on their back legs, but they produce a hologram and a force field to pass as humans. If you saw one, you'd never know them for who they really were."

"Sounds a lot like a Controller to me," I said. "I take it they're on our side, though?"

"Yeah, they are our allies. They help us fight the Yeerks, but are limited to spying and passing on information."

"Why?"

"Despite their incredible strength, the Chee are hardwired for non-violence. It's in their programming. They can't harm or kill any living soul."

"Typical," said Philip, who seemed to be taking in this information a heck of a lot faster than I was. "Talk about ironic. Incredible strength, advanced technology, incapable of violence."

Jake shrugged. "Yeah, well, I guess it's just one of those things you have to deal with. The Chee _have _been incredibly helpful to us. No way we could fight this war without them."

There was a slight pause, during which the Animorphs looked slightly irritated, and us Fugitives just looked confused.

"So, what did Erek say?" asked Cassie.

"He told me he's meeting up with us in a few minutes. I mentioned on Thursday we'd be at the mall today, and he's coming to tell us something." Jake glanced at me and Ferdie. "In fact, he should be here any second. So you'll finally have a chance to meet a real android."


	3. Chapter 3: Terrorism

**Chapter Three**

"You're saying that's an _android_?" asked Ferdie, disbelievingly to Jake. "That kid in jeans and a shirt is, in fact, a robot?"

"Yup," replied Jake shortly.

I gazed at the boy walking towards us. No one could have told he wasn't human, certainly not me. For a second, I even thought the others were playing some kind of stupid trick on us, or testing to see if they could trust us.

"Guys, hi," said the android, taking a seat around the already crowded table. "How's it going?" He was quite tall, with smiling hazel eyes and light brown, wavy hair. I say 'he', of course this was apparently all some kind of hologram.

"Hey Erek," said Rachel, standing up to introduce us. "Um, is it safe to talk?"

"Sure, just a second," the android said, smiling. Just then, the air around us shimmered, as if we were suddenly enclosed in a bubble. I looked around in alarm. People on the outside were walking about as normal, seemly unaware of the oddity that had just happened. I felt Ferdie nudge my arm, and I looked again at Erek.

"Whoa," I muttered. Erek's human form had vanished, and in its place was now what looked like a sort of toy dog made of ivory and chrome metal, sitting upright in the chair.

"Sam, Ferdie, Philip and Maggie?" said Rachel, "this is Erek King. He's a Chee. An android. Erek, this is Sam, Ferdie, Philip and Maggie, the newest members of our team."

Maggie gave a very slight wave, her mouth open like a fish. Philip nodded curtly, his eyes narrowed in curiosity. Ferdie tossed his head in acknowledgement. The others said hi as if they'd known him since they were kids.

"Pleased to meet you," said Erek to the four of us. "It's quite safe to talk about anything now. I have extended my hologram to include the ten of you. People on the outside will just see a bunch of kids chatting about basketball."

"We're inside a hologram?" I asked, gazing at the shimmering bubble around us.

"Told you this dude was cool," said Marco. "But I have the feeling that what he's about to tell us isn't quite so fun."

"Yeah, every time you turn up, Erek, we always seem to end out practicing our fighting skills," said Rachel amicably. "Not that that's a bad thing or anything…"

"Easy for you to say, Miss Gung-Ho warrior chick," said Marco.

"Shut _up_, Marco," said Rachel airily. "Hey Erek, I take it you didn't just pop by to say hello?"

"Here is comes," said Marco darkly. "What's it this time? Visser Three has managed to clone himself?"

Erek smiled, then looked at us seriously. "No, nothing to do with Visser Three this time. How many of you have heard of the Cronin Building?"

"Isn't that some kind of FBI thing in Washington?"

"Not Washington, our state capital. It's government, but not strictly FBI. The offices there have connections to the CIA and NSA."

"What's that got to do with us?" Tobias asked.

Erek paused, then continued. "You are aware that I, along with various other members of our race have access to an exclusive internet system? Chee-net?"

Tobias and the others nodded, but Erek continued his explanation for our benefit.

"The Chee-net is what we use to share information," he told us. "It's like your internet system, only much faster and capable of sending and receiving much larger amounts of information in a fraction of the time. We can also use it to hook up to the regular internet, and to hack into the intranets of other organisations."

I nodded. After all, this sounded perfectly reasonable compared to everything else we'd gone through in the last few weeks. "And you found something out about the Yeerks, I guess? Something in relation to these offices?"

"Terrorist are planning to bomb the Cronin building," Erek said matter-of-factly. "In twelve hours from now. And the FBI don't know anything about it."

The ten of us gazed at him for a second, before Marco broke the silence. "Uh, shouldn't you call the police, dude? Or maybe that Agent Bauer guy from _24_?"

"I don't think he's joking, Marco," said Jake, punching him. "How do you know? And how come the FBI don't?"

"Like I said, us Chee can access parts of the internet that even the most sophisticated human hacker could not. When one of us got hold of a thread that was of interest to us, it wasn't difficult to trace the thread to it's source and find out what was really going on. And, the FBI probably _do _know about it, but the thing is, they get like a thousand bomb threats everyday to this building. It's no secret that it's a government building, and since the attacks on the World Trade Centre, they've been bombarded with threats and reports. So far, they've all turned out to be flukes, and they've learnt to ignore most of them."

"So what's this got to do with us?" Tobias repeated. "Last time I checked, we were fighting the Yeerks, not terrorists."

"The government offices are crawling with Controllers. That building is like a major hot-spot for the Yeerks. Think of all the opportunities they have when they manage to make some important head of department a Controller. They have access to a vast amount of classified information, which they can then use to gather more information, and more hosts. If they have a host in that building, then they might have the ear of a man who works in the White House."

"They could be influencing the President," Philip said. "Getting access to military personnel, getting new laws passed, the list goes on."

"Not only that, but we have long suspected that there are so many Controllers there that the Yeerks are using it as a sort of secondary ground-based headquarters. They've got a lot of technology kept there, and part of their work involves improving and developing this technology, under the mask that they are working for the American government. They just make out that the work is classified to low ranking agents."

"So, what do the Chee expect us to do?" I asked Erek. "If you want the FBI to get to work on this, can't you make them believe this is a genuine threat? Why should we do it?" That came out a little harsher than I'd meant, but this wave of shocking information left me with little concern for my emotions.

"Plus, what's anyone meant to do in twelve hours?" Marco asked dryly. "You're leaving it a bit late, aren't you? Could have given us a few more _minutes _notice at least."

"Look, I'm not asking you to do anything," Erek replied, trying not to make eye contact with any of us. Just then, the truth dawned on Philip.

"You want us to decide," he said. It wasn't a question, asking for his confirmation, but a statement. "You want us to decide whether to let this bomb go off and kill all those Controllers, or inform the FBI and save the lives of hundreds."

Erek sort of nodded, unsure of what to say. Obviously, Philip had hit the mark with dead accuracy.

"Man, you are insane, buddy," said Marco, looking at the android. "You expect us to make a decision like that? Well, just to let you know, I'm not exactly into all that moral-reasoning crap. If you want my opinion, I say we stay out of it and let the damn thing go off. Major blow to the Yeerks; no trouble to us."

This, of course, got everyone's spirits flaring. Cassie was the first to rise.

"Marco, how can you just take that side without any care for all the people who could die? I think we should stop this!"

Maggie leapt up to support Cassie's argument, but Jake put his hand out to stop everyone.

"Look, we can't decide now, and certainly not here. This needs a lot of thinking and going over."

"A lot of time? Jake, that bomb is set to detonate in, like, twelve hours!" Rachel exclaimed, sounding rather excited. "We haven't _got _time to sit around discussing it!"

"Well, I suppose not, but we can't just go in with no idea of what to do. For a start, we're over a hundred miles from the site. We have to get there before we do anything."

"We can't just sit back and do nothing," Cassie said. "Otherwise people are going to die." Rachel started to protest, but, was again stopped by Jake.

"I say we should just settle down for a second. Go back to Cassie's barn and discuss this properly. Work out our options - quickly, efficiently, fairly. Decide what we're going to do. Erek, you want to come back with us?"

"Sure," Erek replied. "I'm sorry to drop you in it like this, but we felt that since you're the only guys who know about the Yeerks, you'd be the only ones capable of making a true assessment of the situation." He switched off the extended hologram. Immediately, his human shape appeared, masking his true self. But it did not mask the apprehension that was showing in his face.


	4. Chapter 4: Deeper Than That

**Chapter Four**

We took the bus back to Cassie's barn, sitting in relative silence. Marco was sitting behind me, muttering on about how we should never plan a Yeerk-free weekend, as something was _bound _to come up. Ax was munching happily on the crumbs of some leftover crisps and attracting smirks from some boys in the back row. I sat next to Philip and stared out of the window.

"My dad called me earlier and said something about bringing in some injured birds, so he might be popping in from time to time," Cassie said as we hopped off the bus and walked up the long dirt road towards the barn. Cassie lives on a farm, and is very into animals. The barn where we meet is some hospital for injured creatures which her dad runs.

"Should be no problem," Jake said. "Tobias, you can keep watch, let us know when anyone's coming?"

"No problem," Tobias replied. Tobias, like Ax and the four of us Brits, would have to demorph once we got into the privacy of the barn. Tobias would spend the majority of the meeting perched up in the rafters.

"Anyone want to help me muck out the horse stalls?" asked Cassie as we entered the large red wooden building. The place was filled from floor to ceiling with cages, some empty, most containing some kind of wind animal or bird. Near the far end of the barn were stables for the horses and larger animals. There were a number of smaller rooms where Cassie's father performed medical procedures. It was smelly, noisy, but above all, private.

"I will," said Maggie, grabbing a broom and following Cassie into one of the stalls. Ferdie, having demorphed already, made a half hearted attempted to follow, but gave up as soon as he saw Marco flop lazily down onto a bale of hay.

"Don't strain yourself, Flawless," Philip said, rolling his eyes and beginning his own demorph.

"What? I don't see you doing any work."

I sighed, demorphed, and sat down next to Marco. I felt slightly guilty for not helping Cassie with her chores, but I have no idea when it comes to animals. Especially horses. Tobias and Ax demorphed; Tobias to his usual hawk self, Ax to his weird and wonderful Andalite form.

"I can extend my hologram here as well, if you like," said Erek, who was standing in the entrance of the barn, looking at the group of us.

"It's ok Erek," said Jake. "We get a lot of privacy in here, and like I said, Tobias can spot anyone who comes anywhere near this barn from a mile off."

Tobias finished demorphing and flapped up into the rafters. I got the feeling that this physical separation from the group was also an unconscious attempt to maintain his own space in a metaphorical manner, both as a hawk and as a person.

"So what do we do?" ask Ferdie, getting straight to the point. "We've got, what, twelve hours to make a decision which could effect the whole of California?"

Jake sighed and stared at the ground. I could tell what he was feeling; as a leader, people expect you to make some tough decisions about the war, the battles you face, and your friends. I myself had made many choices which would effect possibly hundreds of Controllers - and their innocent host bodies. Made many choices which could have resulted in the deaths of my team. Made a choice which _did _result in the death of one of us. So I could understand what Jake was going through; the feeling of having the world resting on your shoulders.

"We've never made a choice which could effect this many people before," he said, confirming my thoughts. "And when we have done, they've usually been in situations where the people we effect - the hosts and the Yeerks - know what's going on." He paused, his eyes dark, his face appearing to age a decade in a couple of seconds. "But right now? No one knows what's going on in regards to this bomb. The public don't know about it. Even the government has no idea. If we make a choice, no'one will know that we did, or indeed why we made that choice. If we let the bomb go off, people won't praise us for saving the world, they'll talk about how we should be executed, as if we ourselves were terrorists."

I nodded. "And even if we set out to stop it, people won't know why or how we did it. The public might not even be aware of what we did. And they won't be aware that we've made a decision which could very well result in their slavery."

"Sounds like just a nice, normal day in the life of an Animorph," said Marco stonily. "Make decisions…kill people…save someone else's life and do it all in secret."

--It's not exactly the celebrated life of the guardian angel, is it?-- Tobias said.

"Why bring it up now though?" Rachel said. "Surely we've been in this situation right from the beginning?"

"Yeah, but this is possibly the biggest and most sensitive mission we've ever become involved in," Jake said. "We've got a mission that isn't just about fighting the Yeerks - it's embedded in a far deeper context. We've got to think about the whole state here. Terrorism's been a hot subject since nine-eleven. A lot of people have become very agitated at the thought of it. People are becoming scared to go to work, scared to travel, scared to vote incase they're targeted. This fear is shaking the very foundations of our society. Are we the ones to increase that fear by letting the bomb go off, even if it stops people from ending up as slaves to an enemy they don't yet know about? And now, because of the Yeerks - this factor the public could never know about - we've become caught up in it. We have to make the decision whether or not to let this bomb go off. We are directly responsible for it's outcome, and that effects the actions and the welfare of the state and the public."

"So, no biggie then?" said Marco, raising his eyebrows. "At least pressure isn't on."

"Would you just keep your mouth shut for once?" said Rachel, glaring at him.

Philip stood up, looking every part the army officer that he was once. "Twelve hours," he barked, attempting to end the morality discussion and steer the conversation towards appropriate action. "That's all we've got. That's just half a day. Less that that now we've spent all this time fannying about."

"So what do you propose?" Jake asked, allowing Philip to take command for a bit. Whilst Philip was an obvious first choice for acting as the leader, his reluctance to take responsibility and the Animorph's respect for Jake had allowed him to take the place of a sort of lieutenant rather than captain.

"A vote, perhaps?" Philip suggested. "Let's make this clean and simple - we don't have time for any messy debates."

Cassie and Maggie placed their brooms and buckets down and sat on the hay bales with the rest of us.

"Ok, but first we have to know what we're voting for," Cassie pointed out. "There's a lot more to the decision than the simple question of 'should we let the bomb go off?'"

"Absolutely," Philip said rather pompously. "Right then. Choice A: we sit back, do nothing, and allow the bomb to go off, thus destroying the Yeerk technology and perhaps several hundred Controllers."

"And several hundred innocent hosts!" Maggie replied. "Plus anyone working in the building who isn't a Controller!"

"Plus offices full of data which might be vital to the running of your state," I pointed out."

"Yes, alright," said Philip, reluctant to be drawn back into the moral debate. So, moving on. Option 2: we-"

"You know, the letter B comes after A, not the number 2," said Ferdie casually.

Marco sniggered, but Philip ignored them both, moving along with military rigor.

"Option 2," he repeated, "we intervene and prevent the bomb going off. We let the FBI know of it's whereabouts, we make sure they take us seriously, and they go ahead with a bomb-squad and neutralize the thing themselves. This of course, will do absolutely no damage to the Yeerks, but it will save several million dollars worth of damage to the city of Sacramento."

"I'm not too keen on that idea," Ferdie said. "We can't get involved in a mission this big, and come out of it without having made a scratch on the Yeerk's plans."

"He sounds just like Rachel," said Marco.

"So you think we should go ahead and let the bomb go off, just because it would make the whole mission worthwhile?" Maggie said, appalled.

"I agree," said Cassie. "We fight this war for the good of humanity, and if that means making a decision to save others, with no benefit to ourselves, then that's what we have to do. That's what we _have _been doing ever since the beginning."

"Well, it looks like there's a lot of good points that complement both sides of the argument. But we haven't got time to sit on out butts talking morality," Jake intervened. "We have to make a decision. Let the bomb go off, or help prevent it. Do some damage to the Yeerks, or save a whole lot of lives. Yes, or no."


	5. Chapter 5: The Third Choice

**Chapter Five**

We did talk a lot more morality, of course. With a mission like this, it was impossible not to stray far from the subject. The eleven of us were staring into space for a few seconds, each of us lost in our own thoughts. My mind was working overtime. It was racing with questions, thoughts, 'whys', 'buts' and 'what ifs'.

--I shall do whatever Prince Jake does,-- Ax said at last. --I cannot make a decision like this; I am not a part of your race.--

--Ax, you're as much of the team as any of us,-- Tobias sighed. --If you have an opinion, we want to hear it.--

--I do not understand the motives of these human terrorists, for a start,-- he said. --No other race that I know of would take such extreme measures to strike terror upon his own race.--

"Ax, we don't agree with it either, that's why this is such a heated topic," Marco sighed. "So just tell us what you think about the choices."

Ax folded his arms, a gesture he'd picked up from humans, and one which portrayed his feelings of insecurity and an unwillingness to let his thoughts known to the rest of the group.

--Letting this bomb detonate, however primitive it may be, would surely cause significant damage to the Yeerks. As a trained _aristh_, I have been taught to look at the situation from a purely black-and-white perspective. That is, assess the maximum possible damage to the enemy and carry out the appropriate duty.--

"But surely you were taught to consider ethics and morals in your decisions too?" asked Cassie. "Surely these factors are universal, and you'd have to cover them even if you were dealing with different species?"

--Emotion should never be allowed to interfere with one's assessment, Cassie," Ax said quietly.

"I'm not talking about emotion, I'm talking about morality!" Cassie replied, her voice rising. This was unusual for her, Cassie is generally the calmest of the group. "You can't make decisions without looking at the effects your actions will do to innocent people. If you do, I'd say you shouldn't be a solider."

At this point, Philip sat back down, placing his head in his hands. I saw Ferdie watch him apprehensively. Several months ago, as a young officer in the British Army, Philip had made a moral error which resulted in the deaths of the majority of his soldiers. Whilst he had since learnt to accept his mistake and forgive himself for it, it was still a subject that rubbed raw next to his heart.

"There may be another option," he said eventually.

"What?" asked Erek. He had taken virtually no part in the discussion until now. I suppose that, after dumping this decision on us, he didn't want to interfere anymore by becoming too involved.

"If we do this, we'd have to act quickly. As in in the next few minutes. But I believe there may be a third possibility. One which will cause significant damage to the Yeerk empire, but would not result in the loss of any lives. Yeerk or otherwise."

"How?" asked Cassie, looking sceptical.

"Well," Philip said, raising his eyebrows. "It's actually quite simple. I'm surprised no one thought of it earlier. What if we allow the bomb to go off, but make sure that everyone in the building and immediate area are evacuated first?"

Jake nodded. "I guess that has the benefits of both sides, right?"

"Quite," Philip continued. "If we let the bomb go off, but got everyone out, no'one would be killed, but we would still make sure that the Yeerk technology being developed there was destroyed."

--And what about the information held by our government?-- asked Tobias. --That would be destroyed too.--

"Well hopefully that information will have been backed up," I said. "Ok, so the Yeerks' information might have been too, but if they have physical hardware being stored, not just stuff stored electronically, we could damage that."

"The only problem would be timing the evacuation. We have to allow enough time for the innocent people to have time to escape from the area, but not so much for the Yeerks to be able to salvage their technology. Plus, if we did let this bomb go off, we'd have to make sure that the FBI don't get wind of it too early and neutralise it"

"I take it the Yeerks don't know about this bomb?" I asked Erek. "And that terrorists are targeting the government, and have no idea about the Yeerks?"

"As far as we can be sure, that is correct," Erek said. "The Yeerks are as much in the dark about this threat as your government. It's only the Chee and you guys who know the full story."

"So this whole thing really does fall into our hands," Marco said. "Fun."

"I think we've established that, Marco," said Rachel.

"Right, well, what does everyone think about Philip's idea?" I asked, glancing around at the group. "Agree, disagree, don't know, can't be arsed?"

"I think it's a promising compromise," said Jake. "Damage to the Yeerks, minimal human casualties."

"I still don't like it," said Cassie. "Letting a building explode - there's no way we could be sure that all people are safe and out of danger. I don't think we should engage in something so extreme. There are other ways to get back at the Yeerks."

"Cassie, don't forget that we aren't the ones planting that bomb," Jake said, looking at her in the eye. "It was terrorists who are responsible for it. They were the ones who planted the bomb - they're the ones who put us in this position. We've just got to work out where we stand take the most appropriate action in accordance to the situation."

Cassie sighed and looked down at her feet. "I still feel it's wrong to exploit these criminals' actions for our own causes."

Maggie glanced at Jake. "Aye," she agreed. "Not only do I feel it's wrong, but I also feel like we're cowards."

"How do you mean?" Jake asked, looking a little confused.

"It's like everyone here thinks that we should have thought about taking extreme action like this right from the start, but that we've always been scared, or pretended we haven't been able to. Like we know how much damage a bomb could do and how the plan could go so wrong. It's only now that we've got an excuse to do this without being directly responsible for how we get hold of that opportunity that we embrace this new method. Almost like we're viewing this terrorist threat as a good thing, something that we've been waiting for, because we don't have the guts to go out and bomb the Yeerks ourselves. We need criminals to motivate us to do it."

There was yet another pause as we considered this new angle. After a moment, Ferdie, who was fidgeting and had clearly understood none of this, announced his views. "I think we should just let the bomb go off as it is. If we start calling into the FBI or whatever, it might blow our cover. Plus, you said that the bomb is going to go off in twelve hours, right? Well, that makes it about 3 in the morning. How many people are going to be working then? As far as I see it, the only people wandering about the place in the middle of the night are bound to be Controllers."

"Flawless, you can't just assume something like that," said Philip heavily.

"True," said Marco. "Government agencies like this don't adopt the normal nine-to-five work schedule that most people do. They work around the clock, including through the night. It's likely that they'll be as many non-Controllers as Controllers there. Anyone left in the building if that bomb goes off are dead meat."

"Good point," said Jake as Ferdie huffed and crossed his arms. "We have to go along with Cassies' assumption that letting this bomb go off without calling an evacuation will result in the deaths of every in the vicinity. Whether they're Controllers or not is neither here not there."

"Well, I think we should do this evacuation thing then," said Rachel. "It would be nice if we _could _kill some Controllers while we're at it, but I guess just doing some damage to their equipment is good enough too."

"Jeez, Rach, would you listen to yourself?" said Marco disbelievingly. "'It would be nice if we could kill some Controllers while we're at it'? You sound like you're talking about a sale at the shopping mall. 'Oh, it would be nice if we _could _get the jacket, but I guess just getting the shoes is god enough too.' Or maybe you just want to cause a great big bang, and the more Yeerk blood spilled, the better."

Rachel stole a glare at Marco, but said nothing.

--I still don't like this whole situation, but I think we should go for Philips' suggestion too,-- said Tobias. --It's the only way out of this that would have any sort of positive impact whatsoever.--

"Ok, so that's the majority for the compromise," said Jake. "Ax? Sam? Marco?"

"I vote option three," I said.

"Yeah, me too," said Marco, "but for different reasons than Xena."

--I will go with this option too, Prince Jake,-- said Ax.

"You sure?" asked Jake. "Only you said before that you wanted the bomb to go off in order to take as many Yeerk lives as possible."

--I have now taken Philip's third suggestion into account, and after considerable internal debate, have come to the conclusion that this is the only acceptable way of going about it.--

"Could just have said 'yes'," said Ferdie, who was sulking at having been put right by Marco.

"Ok then," said Jake. "So I guess it's a go for option three."

"Which means that we'd better get off our backsides and start getting into gear," said Philip, standing up. "And what a better way to get this whole thing into perspective than getting to the state capital, and this building itself?"

Jake paused, knowing this was an inescapable part of the plan.

"A hundred miles in a few hours?" he asked. "What morphs have we got that can do that?"

Cassie opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Philip.

"We don't need to morph to get there," he said, smiling slightly. "As well versed in travelling long distances as the four of us our, we have all learned that there is one type of transportation which does the job better than any animal."

"What's that?" I asked, knowing where this was going."

"The car."


	6. Chapter 6: Road Rage

**Chapter Six**

"You are _not _taking my dad's car!" squealed Cassie, running out into the yard and attempting to barricade herself in front of the big, mud splattered four-by-four. "Marco already managed to wrap the old one around a tree, I'm not having you do the same to the new one!"

Philip ran up to Cassie, trying to persuade her to listen to him. "Cassie - don't worry! I'm a great driver! I've even got a Land Rover just like this at home!"

Cassie refused to budge, giving Philip a look of deep distrust.

"I really don't think she wants you to drive her dad's car ," said Marco casually. "How do you know you're a great driver anyway? Have you even got your licence?"

"Of course I've got a licence," Philip retorted. "I have a licence to drive almost every vehicle known to man, I think I can handle a car."

Marco stared at Philip, the expression on his face a mixture of astonishment and disbelief. Jake and the others were gathered around us, watching with amusement.

"All vehicles my ass," he muttered. "So, like, you can drive a tank then?"

Ferdie laughed at this. "You'd better believe it, Marco," he said. "He was in a regiment in the army which specialised in armoured cars. Tanks are just like any other vehicle to him. Now, the question of whether he can actually drive them _well _is another matter…"

"Flawless, be quiet," Philip snapped amicably. He turned to Cassie, who was shaking her head at him. "Come on, Cassie?" he pleaded. "I can drive. I can get us all to Sacramento in one piece."

"Yar, come on, Cass, don't let one little episode with Marco put you off forever!" said Ferdie.

"Even if you did have a licence-" started Cassie.

"Which I do," Philip interrupted.

"- I still wouldn't let anyone drive this thing. You're not insured - my dad would kill me."

"Sheesh, we're at war here, and you're worried about insurance?" I said.

"Actually, I am insured," Philip responded. "The army paid for it all."

"Maybe in Britain, but not over here," said Cassie stubbornly. I had no idea what sort of mess Marco had made of Cassies' fathers' old car, but it must have been pretty substantial for Cassie to become so utterly against Philip driving. _And _to be able to transform her normally calm personality into one resembling the instincts of a bear trying to protect its' cubs.

"I'm insured internationally," Philip said, trying to convince her. "I did go to Iraq, remember? I had to drive there as well."

"Cassie, please," said Jake reasonably. "We really do need a car, and you dad's is the only one we can get hold of right now. Philip will be able to drive it safely, I'm sure."

Cassie slumped against the bonnet, her eyes watching Philip like a hawk. "You're sure you can drive this thing?" she asked.

"Yeah, if you wrap that thing round another tree, Cassie will show you what she can do with a bucket of mature," Rachel laughed. "You'd better be totally sure of your capacities!"

"I am completely confident that I can drive this vehicle," Philip said, moving slowly towards the driver's door.

"Ok, ok, in the name of saving the planet, you can drive the thing," she said in defeat. "I need to go grab the keys though. When are we leaving?"

"Alright, road trip!" cried Marco. "I bag the seat next to Xena!"

Rachel scoffed. "Whatever. You're going in the trunk. That car only carries five people. You can morph a roach and keep out of my way."

"I'm not going in the trunk," Marco replied. "You go in the trunk. You morph a roach."

"You wouldn't really want that though, would you Marco? There'd be absolutely no chance of you sitting next to me then."

Jake stepped in. "In answer to Cassie's question, as soon as possible. It's going to take a few hours to get there, especially if the freeway is all congested, so we don't want to waste any time."

Cassie began to walk over to the house, which was a short walk away, at the other end of the farm. "You guys need any more morphs, go and take them. Just don't get your fingers bitten off."

"I think we've got everything we need," said Jake, looking at me. "You guys all have battle morphs right? Insects and birds of prey?"

"Yup," I replied.

"Seagulls? Did Maggie acquire one for the reservoir mission?"

"Yeah, she's got a seagull I think. Or a pigeon. And the rest of us have crows."

--You have crows?-- asked Tobias, who was now circling the air above us, and could hear every word we were saying. --Why'd you acquire crows? Those birds are such punks.--

"Yeah, that's what Ferdie said when we first acquired them. Or rather chavs. Crows are the chavs of the bird world."

--Swooping down, attacking a respectable hawk,-- Tobias continued, clearly lost in his own thoughts. --With no thought whatsoever…--

"Rachel said there's only room for five of us in the car," I said, looking to Jake. "Guess some of us will have to morph to fit in, right?"

"We've already established who's going in the trunk," Rachel called, poking Marco.

Jake punched Marco playfully on the arm. "Well, Philip will obviously have to go as human."

--You should go as human too, Jake,-- said Tobias.

"Well, I don't see that's necessary, but perhaps you, Ferdie and Maggie should morph. They'll be less chance of you getting recognised then."

--I will not be able to travel in that vehicle in my Andalite form,-- said Ax, who was still in the barn, not wanting to be out in the open for too long. --So I shall morph.--

--I'll just stay in my hawk form,-- said Tobias. --Save the trouble of having to demorph every two hours.--

"Ok, so that's sorted then. Philip, Me, Rachel, Marco and Cassie in the seats. Everyone else in morph. Choose something small that won't take up much room."

A few minutes later, Cassie came back over to us with the keys and a big carrier bag full of snacks. "I thought we might need some refreshments," she said. "I told my dad I'd be staying round yours, Rachel. So you might want to think up a suitable cover story for your mom in case my dad calls her."

Rachel took out her mobile and dialled home, giving her parents a similar excuse. "Hopefully we won't be gone for too long," she said. "Lucky it's not a weekday. What did you tell your dad about the car?"

"I didn't even mention it," Cassie mumbled. "But he doesn't work much on Sundays, so hopefully he won't need it. I think he prefers to take the van anyway. What's happening with Erek?"

We turned at looked at the android, who was standing casually by the fence, watching the horses.

"I'm afraid I can't come with you," he said. "I have to keep up my pretence as a Controller, and that means going along to some meeting they have planned this evening. But I can put you in touch of a couple of us in Sacramento, who'd be happy to help you out"

"Sure, Erek, that would be great," said Jake, walking over to him.

"There's two of us who have been working alongside the Controllers in the Cronin offices," Erek told us. "One of us posing as a young woman, going by the name of Jennifer Schwartz. And a guy called Paul Crocker. I'll let them know they're to expect you. Are you taking your cells?"

"Yeah, I guess so, but we obviously won't be able to have them on us while we're in morph. So we'll probably just leave them in the car once we arrive there."

"Ok, I'll send you a voice mail telling you where to meet them."

"Thanks Erek," I said.

"S'ok," he replied. "Good luck."

"Thanks buddy," replied Jake, before turning to the rest of us. "Ok, anyone going in morph, do that now. Everyone else, in the car."

Cassie tossed Philip the keys, who climbed into the driver's seat. Jake climbed into the passenger seat, and Rachel, Marco and Cassie took the back seats. Tobias flew in and perched on Rachel's knee, ruffling his feathers in claustrophobic discomfort. Ax stepped out into the yard, looking around with his four eyes to make sure there was no one around to see us. He assumed an expression of concentration and began to morph.

I peeled off my outer clothes and threw them into the boot - or as Marco called it , the trunk. Maggie and Ferdie did the same. I stood there in my black morphing outfit for a second, closed my eyes and concentrated on a morph that I had performed just twice before. My very first solo morph, as a matter of fact. I soon felt the changes begin. I opened my eyes as watched as sandy-brown fur began to appear all over my skin. Soft, downy fur, rougher on my back, lighter and softer on my stomach. My face budged forwards until I could see the majority of my face right there in front of my eyes. My ears grew and became sensitive to even the quietest of sounds. My eyesight was dull, but my sense of smell was incredible.

--Ferdie, you've stepped in something smelly,-- I commented, watching my boyfriend who was a little more than a foot long and shrinking rapidly.

--What do you expect, sitting in a barn full of stinking animals?-- he retorted, jokily.

I fell forwards onto all fours - with my knees and ankles switching direction with a sickening crunch, I was no long able to hold myself upright. My body elongated, becoming tightly gathered at the waist, like a cheetahs'. A long, whip-like tail popped out of my backside. Human fingers and toes shrivelled away to form four dainty paws. Eventually, I felt the animal's mind surface below my own.

--Whoa, road trip!-- I cried. --What fun! I can't wait!-- I jumped up and down excitedly, amazed at the flexibility and suppleness of my spine. It was great fun being a dog, and even more fun being a super-slick greyhound! I took a short sprint around the carpark, yapping madly.

"Sam! If you'd like to join us when you're ready?" Jake's stern voice, ordering me back to reality.

--Coming,-- I said, trotting up to the car and leaping onto the backseat, wedging myself between Cassie and Marco. --Where are Maggie and Flawless?--

--Right here!-- chirped Ferdie happily from somewhere on Rachel's lap, in ferret morph. I glared at him, then let out a short bark.

"What the hell are you doing, Sam?" asked Philip from the front seat. "Can't you sit properly like a normal dog?"

--Dog mind's going mental!-- I said. --It wants to chase Ferdie.--

--Don't all the girls?-- he laughed, grooming himself with his little paws then looking up at Rachel. I tried not to feel jealous as the blonde beauty laughed girlishly at his charms, and caught Tobias's eyes, glaring down him.

"Careful, Ferdie," said Marco. "You start trying to flirt with Rachel, and Tobias and Sam with be fighting over you for lunch."

From the front seat, I heard Jake sigh. "Are we ready yet?" he asked. "Where's Maggie?"

Maggie, who had morphed a hare, hopped up into the car and settled down on the floor. Rachel leaned over and picked up Ax fron the ground, who had morphed a rattlesnake. She put him down on the floor next to Maggie - whose hare immediately retreated behind Marco's legs -and shut the car door. Philip started the engine and put the car into gear.

"You really had better know how to drive," said Cassie.


	7. Chapter 7: Highway To The Danger Zone

**Chapter Seven**

We tore down the highway, Philip spending most of his time either in the fast lane overtaking other drivers.

"Slightly more comfortable than the last time one of us had to drive anywhere," muttered Jake.

--See, Cassie?-- said Ferdie brightly, nibbling on some crumbs he'd sniffed out under the back seat. --Told you he could drive.--

Cassie rolled her eyes and gazed out of the window. "Do you have to drive so fast though?" she asked.

"That bomb goes off in about less than eleven hours," Philip replied. "The sooner we get there, the more time we'll have to get ourselves in gear."

--Do we even have a plan?-- I asked. --What exactly are we going to do when we get there?--

"Are you talking to me, or Jake?" asked Philip.

--Anyone who has any ideas whatsoever.--

Philip shrugged and continued driving, so Jake spoke up. "Guess we should find out how many people are in that building," he said. "Do some kind of risk assessment of the surrounding area."

"Risk assessment?" laughed Rachel. "Since when did _we_ do risk assessments?"

"This isn't just some normal battle, Rachel," Jake sighed. "It's going to be affecting a heck of a lot more people than our usual missions. I thought we'd been through that."

"What do you mean by a risk assessment?" asked Cassie. "Like counting the number of people who might do? Or making sure this building isn't next to a hospital or anything?"

--If it is, there's no way we can let it go off,-- said Maggie.

--How are we going to do it?-- asked Tobias, who was watching Ferdie's ferret form with hungry interest.

"Well, obviously we can't do a proper, formal one," Jake said. "My guess is that we just morph birds of prey and fly over the building and see what's around."

"Very thorough," said Marco dryly.

"Well, there's not much you can do in a few hours," Jake replied. "Anyway, once we've got a scope for how much damage the bomb might do when it goes off-"

"_If_ it goes off," chipped in Cassie, who was still determined to avoid as much bloodshed as possible.

"-we should get inside and see if we can find this technology the Yeerks are working on."

"What, just nose around and look for a couple of out-of-place Dracon beams? Jake, buddy, not to spoil your fun, but I don't think the Controllers are just going to leave their work lying around for idiots like us to find."

"Well what then? Morph German shepherds and sniff out the bomb?"

"Damn right find the bomb!" cried Rachel in joy. "I've always wanted to see what a real, life big ole' boomer looks like."

"Rachel, you're insane, you do realise that right?" said Marco. "Absolutely insane."

--What would we do once we've found the bomb?-- asked Tobias. --I thought we were going to let it go off? I don't see what good finding it first would do. Except to make sure it actually exists.--

"How do we know these terrorists have even planted a bomb there already?" Philip asked. "They might be planning to deliver the bomb just before it explodes. They might drop it out of a plane or drive a car into it."

--Might be a suicide bomber,-- said Tobias. --Might be walking around the mall right now, and won't enter the building until tonight.--

"Oh, Rachel won't like that!" laughed Marco. "What if it went off in The Gap?"

Rachel batted her eyelids at him. "What if it went off in the video arcade? No more Time Crisis for you."

"Hmm, I doubt it," said Philip in answer to Tobias's thoughts. He exited the highway and joined the intercity freeway, quickly gathering speed. "Erek seemed clear enough that the bomb would be set to go off at a specific time. If you're going to deliver the bomb, as opposed to planting it, the timing wouldn't be nearly as accurate."

"Maybe Erek got it wrong," Cassie said. "Maybe twelve hours was just an estimate."

--I agree with Philip,-- said Ax. --Erek would have told us if he was at all unsure. And I do not understand the full workings or motives of these terrorists of yours, but it seems to be that an attack on a government building is one that requires a great deal of planning.--

"They're not exactly _our_ terrorists, Ax," interrupted Marco, grabbing a packet of crisps from the carrier bag. "I doubt anyone would want to claim them as theirs."

Ax took no notice of him and carried on. --The explosive devices in which I have been trained may be vastly more efficient than your primitive devices, but the underlying methodologies are similar. Mobile, transportable devices are more commonly used for opportunistic attacks, whilst set-down devices with a set countdown timer are more appropriate for planned attacks.--

"You sound scarily like a member of Al-Qaeda yourself, Ax," muttered Marco.

"You learn anything like that in the army, Philip?" asked Rachel.

"Similar, I agree with what Ax said," Philip replied.

"That's still just an assumption," said Cassie. "Just because a set of factors makes something more likely doesn't mean it will actually happen."

--It's pretty much the best we can do right now, though,-- I said.

"We still don't have much of a plan," Philip said. "Everything we've been talking about replies on assumptions. Let's try and decide what we're going to do in regards to events that we can control."

"Like what?" asked Rachel.

"Like working out when we are going to let the FBI know, so we know when they would be most likely to call in the evacuation order."

"How long does it take to get hundreds of people out of a building like that?"

"If they're government agents, then hopefully not long. I'd say less than twenty minutes. They'd be trained in situations like this, and hopefully they would have had enough drills to know how to act."

--What about the people in the surrounding areas? If the bomb does go off, then we'd have to make sure that everyone in the nearby buildings got to safety,-- I said.

"Well, the clear-zone around the building would be about a mile's radius, possibly more. Obviously that's just a guesstimate - each city should have its own preparations. It's difficult to tell how big the zone should be without carrying out a test explosion first."

"Which I guess isn't too common?" asked Marco sarcastically.

"Well it's not exactly the most cost-efficient way of carrying out a safety check," Philip smiled.

--How long does it take for the FBI to issue an evacuation?-- I asked.

"If they're worth the tax-payer's bucks, they'll do it within minutes," said Jake.

"What if the FBI don't believe us?" Cassie asked. "Erek said they got loads of threats everyday, but they don't go and evacuate everyone each time they get one."

"It's their job to believe us," Jake said.

"What if they try and locate the bomb, and try and neutralize it?" asked Rachel. Cassie looked a little hopeful at this.

--Yeah, they might have learned about the threat by now,-- said Tobias.

--Guess we'll have to leave them to neutralize it,-- said Maggie. --I still don't like the idea of it going off just to destroy some equipment of the Yeerks'.--

"Look, we've already gone through all that," said Philip. "If the FBI _do_ attempt to neutralize it, then I certainly do not suggest that we try to intervene. That would make _us_ as bad as the terrorists. We only allow the bomb to go off if no one tries to stop it."

"But we don't try and prevent the FBI from finding the bomb, either," asserted Cassie. "We let them do their job, whether they find it or not."

"Sure," said Jake. "That all sounds pretty reasonable to me. We go along with the original plan; meet up with these two Chee, find the building before we do anything, work out how much damage the bomb will cause and alert the FBI during a suitable window of time. If the bomb isn't neutralized, we get out of the way quickly. Hope the Yeerk equipment was destroyed, but no lives were lost."

--Doesn't sound like we really have to do that much,-- said Ferdie. --Sounds like the FBI are doing it all.--

"That's their job, Ferdie," said Jake. "They save the country from terrorists, we save the world from the Yeerks."

"Besides, we had to make a huge decision, Flawless," sighed Philip. "I think that counts as doing quite a lot."


	8. Chapter 8: Paul and Jennifer

**Chapter Eight**

The rest of the journey passed without too much excitement. Philip took the 'scenic' route, rather than sticking to the busy freeways, in order to give those who were morphed a chanced to demorph without being spotted.For Ax, we had to pull over so he could demorph in the safety of a forest. The rest of us, having smaller, human bodies, just demorphed in the car. Soon after we were back on the road, Jake's mobile began to beep.

"Hey, Erek," he said. He paused as he listened to the new information. "Sure. Yeah. I'll let them know. See you later." He turned round to face the rest of us.

"That was Erek, if you hadn't guessed. Just giving us directions where to meet the Chee."

--Where are we meeting them?-- I asked.

"In a public place. A mall - Philip, I'll give you directions there. Erek said they'll place a hologram over us and they'll drive us back to their house."

--These robots live in houses?-- laughed Ferdie. --The Android family at Number 42?--

"That's just to keep up appearances," Jake sighed. "Being spies and all, they obviously don't want to raise any suspicions."

Eventually, we began to see signs that we were entering the city. Tall office buildings could be seen in the distance. The roads were becoming more and more congested as we entered the rush hour. The hum of busy, urban life could be heard as we drove towards the city.

--This feels like old times,-- sighed Ferdie, --when we were trying to find you guys. We'd find a city, demorph for geese and chase some townie up the street for a few hotdogs.--

"I could do with a nice hotdog now," said Marco conversationally. "Do we get fed at the Chees' houses?"

"I don't think they're exactly planning to host a dinner party," replied Rachel, rolling her eyes. "I don't think the Chee even eat like we do."

Jake and Philip were trying to locate the shopping mall, peering at road signs, getting lost, and doubling back every few minutes.

"I thought you said he was good with directions," Marco whispered to me, listening to Philip's cursing because he couldn't work out which exit to take off the highway.

"At least he can drive, Marco," said Rachel. "Which is more to be said about your abilities."

--Philip, I believe we are heading south,-- Ax said after a stressful five minutes. --We should be aiming to travel east.--

"Yeah, I know that, Ax," huffed Philip. "But for your information, this is a highway, and you can't just stop the car and start driving at a ninety-degree angle to the rest of the traffic."

At long last, and after another phone call to Erek, the guys managed to get to our destination without too much fuss. Philip parked the car in a shadowy corner of a near-by multi-storey carpark. Maggie and I demorphed on the back seat, and Tobias morphed to his human form. Philip, Ferdie, Maggie and I carried out some partial morphs to distort out features, just incase a Controller should recognise us. We threw on the clothes we had bought with us, glad that we'd remembered to bring shoes for once. Tobias picked up Ax, who was still in snake-form, and tucked him into his jacket pocket. He would have to wait until we found a secure place to demorph.

Rachel, who was the expert on mall-orientation, led us through the carpark in into the mall, where we found coffee bar where Erek had told us to meet the Chee. Rachel went up to the counter and bought us some drinks, and we sat down at a table. I scanned the crowds, looking for two people who might be Jennifer and Paul, but of course, I knew it was impossible to be sure. I had seen what the Chee could do.

--Are we going to be buying any cinnamon buns?-- asked Ax hopefully, from inside Tobias's pocket. --I should very much like to taste the sweet flavour of the buns once again.--

None of us replied, partly because rattlesnakes are deaf and none of us were in a position to thought-speak, and partly because we were too occupied with other things to worry about a crazy bun-eating Andalite again. Just then, we were approached by two very realistically portrayed humans; a tall, middle aged guy and a younger, Chinese woman with striking blue hair.

"Erek sent you guys?" asked the man, looking over our group.

Jake leapt up and shook his hand. "Yeah, that's us," he said vaguely, incase any Controllers were listening. "I'm Jake."

"Hey," said the girl. "I'm Jenni and this is Paul. You guys ready?" Suddenly, the air around us shimmered, and I knew that we were once again inside a hologram. The two Chee stood before us, revealing their natural, robotic forms. "We can talk openly now. All anyone watching us is a group of businessmen having a working lunch. Not the most exciting thing to watch, so I'm sure we'll be safe."

"I thought there was another one of you?" asked Paul, the once-male Chee. "are they here?"

--I am here,-- said Ax. --As I am sure you are aware, I am an Andalite. I was unable to demorph in a public place.--

"Ah, well you're quite safe now," Paul continued. "You can demorph freely. No one will see you."

--Yes, you're technology is quite admirable,-- said Ax, as Tobias scooped him up and placed him on the floor. The Chee watched as the snake began to grown, shift and mutate as it become Andalite.

"This is so weird," muttered Cassie.

"What is?" I asked. "Surely you've seen him demorph before?"

"Yeah, but never in a public place. I know we're shielded by the hologram, but it still seems really strange when there are all these people talking passed."

"I know what you mean," said Tobias. "I keep expecting some Controller to leap out and take us all to Visser Three."

"Or at least some old lady to have a heart attack," piped in Marco.

"That's not funny," said Rachel.

"I wasn't making a joke!" protested Marco. "I was just saying how strange this is!"

Rachel began to argue back, but Jake broke her off. "Well, we can't sit around drinking coffee all day," he said. "We have just hours before this bomb goes off. Paul, Jenni? Erek said we were to go back to yours?"

"Absolutely," said Jenni, standing up onto her dog-like hind legs and leading us out of the mall. Our place is not far from here. But I'll keep the hologram around us just in case."


End file.
